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May 9, 2012

India Raising Offensive Corps for China Border: Antony

Admitting the "mistake" of not developing capabilities on the borders
with China, Government today said it is gearing up through a slew of
steps to tackle the changing threat perception including the formation
of an offensive Corps.

Defence Minister A K Antony pitched for a
hike of around Rs 45,000 crore in defence budget as he observed that the
allocation of Rs 1,93, 407 crore was not sufficient to meet the growing
challenges.

Terming the growing military ties between Pakistan
and China as a "cause of worry", he said the armed forces have been
issued a new directive to change their strategy to meet the challenges.

"Threat
perception today is not similar to the threat perception ten or twenty
years ago. Dynamic changes are taking place. But I assure the House that
we are also changing our strategy," he said in reply to a discussion on
performance of his Ministry in the Rajya Sabha.

"Now we have
given a new directive to our armed forces to meet the new challenges in
the context of the new threat perception faced by the country," the
Defence Minister said.

Observing that China had developed
military infrastructure in Tibet and India should have also done so in
Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and other parts of the country, he said, "In
the past we did not perform our duty. That is our mistake. Now we have
learnt our lessons."

On the need for hike in defence budget,
Antony said, "After analysis of the threat perception, we have found
that the picture is problematic. We will need to have a second look at
the defence budget....

"We have been given Rs 1.93 lakh crore
this year but as per the estimated requirement of the armed forces, we
would want Rs 2.39 lakh crore. We want Rs 45,716 crore more. I have
asked the Government to provide us more money."

On steps taken
by the Government to strengthen defence capabilities, Antony said,
"Under 12th Defence Plan, we have sent a proposal to Finance Ministry to
raise an offensive Corps with two special divisions and it is in final
stages. The force-level has been increased substantially."

He
said the Government had earlier approved raising of two mountain
divisions along with a Special Forces battalion, an artillery brigade
and an armoured regiment for deployment in the northeast sector.

Taking
part in the discussion, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun
Jaitley said a new axis has emerged between China and Pakistan in the
last few years which was evident from China's altered stand on Jammu and
Kashmir and its involvement in building at least two nuclear reactors
for Pakistan.

The BJP leader said in terms of these changing
geo-strategic realities, "our defence strategy has to be planned,
particularly when you find Chinese troops present in PoK and in other
areas.

"The kind of military cooperation between the two
countries which is going on, the kind of road building across our border
which is going on," Jaitley said.